Weightlifting for Kiwis - Discussion and support regarding the art of swole

[Maori Kiwifruit Growers]

Drink a decent amount of water (I like 24-32 ounces), eat an apple, go to sleep hungry. That's life when you're on cut. Just deal with it. Your body will adjust in a few days.

ok. I'll try it tonight

You have to run 1.5 miles in 7 minutes? That's fucking fast. Are you sure it needs to be that fast? I could see 1.5 miles in 8.5 minutes as far more reasonable.

I was told my goal should be between 7 and 8.5 tbh. I will be alone a lot so they probably want to make sure I can handle myself

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

What's a good diet fix that works? I'm not super picky. and willing to follow a prefab menu no matter how "bland" it is. I've just been eating alot of cafeteria slop lately.

This may sound like a meme/fad recommendation, but check out the slow-carb diet and pay particular attention to their focus on beans/legumes. The diet's intended for weight loss but it makes a very good base for a lifter diet if you add dairy or nuts back in as needed for extra protein/fat.

They're 100% not kidding when they claim:

1. You can completely stuff yourself on them and still lose weight
2. The main reason people hate legumes is they don't wash them enough to leech the oligosaccharides out (aka: wash your damn beans and they'll actually taste good AND you won't fart)

Even if you don't follow the diet exactly just substituting lentils/beans for bread will reduce your hunger to a ridiculous extent, plus they're trivial to batch-prep in a pressure cooker and keep well in the fridge. $5 of ingredients and 10 minutes of effort makes your carbs for an entire week.

I maintain that you don't need to and you are only risking shoulder injury by trying to do so with heavy weight.

That's pretty much my perspective on it too (and the reason I don't do it often) but the appeal is that it's one of the few exercises I can really get a burn off of without doing long endurance sets.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

Your course of correction will be 90% diet. Fix that, and you'll lose weight doing more or less nothing additional to what you're doing right now.

Such a difficult truth for so many people to grasp. We've had decades of "Exercise to lose weight!", meanwhile the housewives who attend spin classes never look any different.

A good tip that I use myself and would recommend to anyone is this: make your last meal of the day protein and fat only, e.g. fatty steak with butter, or bacon and eggs cooked in tallow or butter. Nothing else. No carbohydrates.
Make sure you eat by 5:30pm. Don't eat anything else until at least 8:30am the next morning (and no drinking alcohol, soft drink, fruit juices etc).
Watch the weight fall off.

 

[scallion]

For when I'm out of town due to work are those Redge Fit type band/bar things worth a hoot? Afaik there's a ton of different brands doing this concept but I see this one advertising on Instagram with some tasty prices all the time.

 

[dick brain]

Such a difficult truth for so many people to grasp. We've had decades of "Exercise to lose weight!", meanwhile the housewives who attend spin classes never look any different.

Eh, it's more nuanced than that. Increasing your lean body mass increases your BMR, which makes it easier to cut fat in the long run. But people are either too dumb or ADHD to understand that or they're afraid of getting """too muscular""" or they freak out when they see the number on the scale go up. People are stupid and lazy and shortsighted and want everything condensed into "one simple trick" and nothing works like that.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

Increasing your lean body mass increases your BMR,

Only a very little. We've been over this.

 

[Brenda Holiday]

Anyone work out on the weekend only (Fri-Sun) if so whats your routine like? I'm determined to get back into it all and for long term this time. I have a simple home gym.

 

[Jarry Seinfelt]

For everyone else: a diet thing I've been doing that's worked well for me is making 95% of my diet animal proteins and fruit. I eat beef, fish, chicken, a lot of eggs, and low GI fruits. Lately I've been doing cherries, apricots, apples, and strawberries. If I want more protein but don't feel up to cooking/eating more meat I'll mix up a whey protein shake with whole milk and a stick blender. Very easy to comply with this one.

Yeah seconding this. I suck shit at cooking eggs at home so I usually have oatmeal for breakfast, but a good diner omelette is unmatched. Also making sure your vegetable intake is sufficient is a thing a lot of Amerifats miss and it’s really easy to fix. If you don’t give a shit or don’t have the time to cook broccoli or Brussels sprouts or whatever, just make a giant salad and put some balsamic vinaigrette and olive oil on it. Homemade oil and vinegar dressing will cut out plenty of calories so you can make it tastier with cheese and dried cranberries and stuff too. I’ve cleaned up my diet in the last couple of months and my numbers have been going up like I’m 20 again. Another benefit of this is that it will clear your skin up a good bit, which people here should care about because most of us are into this gym shit to look good.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

Brussels sprouts

I really feel like part of the brussels sprouts/broccoli/bean/lentil hatred that every kid seems to have is never having them prepared in a way that's not godawful. Brussels sprouts especially; the modern common cultivar isn't the weird sour thing that was around in the 90s-00s but more a slightly savory cabbage flavor that's really good steamed with a little added salt. They're my favorite vegetable, reheat well and keep for 4-5 days easily in the fridge so you can do them in huge batches.

Only a very little. We've been over this.

I'd argue that increasing your lean body mass just makes you feel less like ass all day and more likely to do things other than sit, which leads to more calories burned.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

I'd argue that increasing your lean body mass just makes you feel less like ass all day and more likely to do things other than sit, which leads to more calories burned

I agree with that.

 

[74164978231]

I really feel like part of the brussels sprouts/broccoli/bean/lentil hatred that every kid seems to have is never having them prepared in a way that's not godawful. Brussels sprouts especially; the modern common cultivar isn't the weird sour thing that was around in the 90s-00s but more a slightly savory cabbage flavor that's really good steamed with a little added salt. They're my favorite vegetable, reheat well and keep for 4-5 days easily in the fridge so you can do them in huge batches.

Most of it is probably due to being served unsalted, mushy over steamed or worse boiled vegetables.

Brussel Sprouts, Okra, Asparagus etc. roasted in the oven/grill with some olive oil + spices of choice is delicious. Even better if you make some hollandaise sauce(lol calories) to dip them in.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

Brussel Sprouts

When I was a kid, if someone had asked me to describe what farts tasted like, I would've replied, "Brussels sprouts". They were nasty.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

It's like liver and onions, if you know how to cook they're great, but if you don't they suck.
My dad is an amazing cook and always made it a point to give us kids good food when we were growing up, so now I love things like liver and okra and spinach and all that stuff because I learned how to make them properly.
I've said this before but it's real, if you want to be fit and healthy you gotta learn how to cook for yourself. And I'll be real bro, bodybuilders as a species are dogshit chefs. Like bro, you could be eating fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce, or egg fried rice, or Gallo Pinto, or goulash, or amazing steak, whatever you want if you just learn to cook.

 

[Hoi Polloi]

Any good core exercises for extremely weak people? My lady has been joining me at the gym recently and a lifetime of being sedentary means she's got absolutely horrible posture and zero core strength, severely holding her back from doing the various girl-popular exercises like RDL and hip thrust. I know she'll build it up doing basic compounds but I figured throwing something extra in at the end may help her out. For reference, she can't even really do a sit-up/crunch and I feel like those ab crunch machines are lame.

Have been getting her to do farmers walks at the moment but they hurt her delicate lady hands.

 

[Jarry Seinfelt]

Any good core exercises for extremely weak people? My lady has been joining me at the gym recently and a lifetime of being sedentary means she's got absolutely horrible posture and zero core strength, severely holding her back from doing the various girl-popular exercises like RDL and hip thrust. I know she'll build it up doing basic compounds but I figured throwing something extra in at the end may help her out. For reference, she can't even really do a sit-up/crunch and I feel like those ab crunch machines are lame.

Have been getting her to do farmers walks at the moment but they hurt her delicate lady hands.

Planks and crunches homeboy. Farmers walks will strengthen the core muscles, but they demand a lot of your grip, and grip is a pain in the ass to train.

Kettlebell swings are good for your core too (hams/glutes are the gas, abs are the brakes, basically) but planks are way simpler.

Most of it is probably due to being served unsalted, mushy over steamed or worse boiled vegetables.

Brussel Sprouts, Okra, Asparagus etc. roasted in the oven/grill with some olive oil + spices of choice is delicious. Even better if you make some hollandaise sauce(lol calories) to dip them in.

If you don't know how to cook that's entirely on you. It's pretty easy to learn. My family was big on the "women do domestic stuff, men earn money and maintain the house and cars" beat, so I didn't know shit aside peeling potatoes and making sandwiches until I was older than I'd like to admit, but nothing is stopping you from getting a cookbook or going online to learn. If you're too busy to cook that's fine but being busy is no excuse for eating like shit imo. Don't have to make really fancy stuff every night to eat healthy.

 

[Hoi Polloi]

Planks and crunches homeboy. Farmers walks will strengthen the core muscles, but they demand a lot of your grip, and grip is a pain in the ass to train.

Kettlebell swings are good for your core too (hams/glutes are the gas, abs are the brakes, basically) but planks are way simpler.

If you don't know how to cook that's entirely on you. It's pretty easy to learn. My family was big on the "women do domestic stuff, men earn money and maintain the house and cars" beat, so I didn't know shit aside peeling potatoes and making sandwiches until I was older than I'd like to admit, but nothing is stopping you from getting a cookbook or going online to learn. If you're too busy to cook that's fine but being busy is no excuse for eating like shit imo. Don't have to make really fancy stuff every night to eat healthy.

Never thought planks really achieved anything, but I guess if she's at the point where she can barely do crunches, that's a good start. Cheers.

 

[Bassomatic]

When I was a kid, if someone had asked me to describe what farts tasted like, I would've replied, "Brussels sprouts". They were nasty.

Real talk 90% of people eat them over cooked. BS are bomB AF. One of my fav foods and I don't get farty after.

So I'm back on heavier weights feels amazing. As holidays are coming in mrs and I swing by stores for fun. They had a vegan pumpkin powder protein. JFC. Now I'm not trying to judge you if you choose to be vegan. It's 6lbs 80 USD and 20g per roughtly .3lb scoopage. Explains how Prince Fieidler is so fat. NGL tasted bomb they gave me a free taste,

Never thought planks really achieved anything, but I guess if she's at the point where she can barely do crunches, that's a good start. Cheers.

Planks often hold a mind set thing, if you can pass the discomfort you can get into good areo testing. We planked after suicides in highschool to keep our lungs up.

 

[Unnecessary Surgery Land]

Is your back just supposed to hurt for the first several months when starting weightlifting?

In the beginning my back hurt like a bitch-- now it's simmered a bit but fuck it still hurts.

My research so far has yielded "yeah it is get gud" or "you should go to the hospital for a slipped disc."

My doctor doesn't seemed too worried about it but it's a bit of a motivation killer when my back sucks
I mean it's not unbearable but it has me scared that I'll seriously injure myself

I'm a woman if that makes any difference

 

[TheSkyrimAddict]

Is your back just supposed to hurt for the first several months when starting weightlifting?

In the beginning my back hurt like a bitch-- now it's simmered a bit but fuck it still hurts.

My research so far has yielded "yeah it is get gud" or "you should go to the hospital for a slipped disc."

My doctor doesn't seemed too worried about it but it's a bit of a motivation killer when my back sucks
I mean it's not unbearable but it has me scared that I'll seriously injure myself

I'm a woman if that makes any difference

Not really.
I had the same issue when I first started working out and assumed something similar.
"No pain, No gain", right?

Wrong!
Lower back pains have nothing to do with gains.
This lasted on-and-off for almost a year.

For me personally, working my abs made the pain disappear seemingly overnight.
Simple stuff like leg raises, about 15 reps, sometimes 30 during my warm up.
The idea was to activate my core to reduce the strain/stress from my back.

Hope it helps.

 

[Unnecessary Surgery Land]

Not really.
I had the same issue when I first started working out and assumed something similar.
"No pain, No gain", right?

Wrong!
Lower back pains have nothing to do with gains.
This lasted on-and-off for almost a year.

For me personally, working my abs made the pain disappear seemingly overnight.
Simple stuff like leg raises, about 15 reps, sometimes 30 during my warm up.
The idea was to activate my core to reduce the strain/stress from my back.

Hope it helps.

Thank you so much! I'm going to try those warmups when I go to the gym tommrow!
Also now I'm going to focus on abs.

I'm so clueless (and also too retardly shy to ask anyone at the gym irl) so I appreciate the advice